Long Dark Future replyability Ideas!

[Ms Nutcracker]

* Please be respectful as I only want the game to be the best survival game!

* The Ideas is to simulate real life but also to make it enjoyable at the same time.

* Other Hardcore games have some of these ideas in it so why I have suggested it.

* I mention puzzles cause surviving is mostly using your brains in real life and figuring out what works and what does not. It does not need to be full blown Myst style so it become unplayable.

This idea might not make it in the game but it be nice if this could happen one day!

LD is the only game out there to not have zombies and have some kind of realism to it BUT! Why didn't it go for more detail and realism? You could have it like in Life is feudal but add more complexity to the environment? There is a kickstarter game called Eco and its trying to simulate animal life. Perhaps the Long dark could simulate animal & plant life? So the world would have this realistic immersion to it?

And more complex realism would be that making and finding things would be like in real life? Instead of going to X to get X? Almost all survival games have this simplistic feature where you just go to place to get an item. I like a game where you need to find the real plants to get the material needed to make a tool. Perhaps know how to strip the plant for the materials?

You could have it so items are in their real location so if you want to find a specific type of wood you need to find the right tree. And when you find the tree you need to know how to cut it down?

However in a winter setting like LD it could be that you need to harvest the environment and you can exhaust the natural resources. But just to get the idea its like surviving in the harsh winter in real life and have that in the game. What you find in real life you can find in the game! What you can make in harsh winter environment you also can in the game. It does not need to be as slow and boring like in real life but close when it comes to the environment, items, crafting, etc.

Will Long Dark ever be like this and improve? I know the game is hard as it is but i think if your playing in a complex real simulated environment they can be more things to do in it! If there is physics too that can add more realism and feature.

Players can keep playing the same map because it changes over time. Animals, plants, it all is a simulation and things change. The environment changes and go through the seasons. You can drain natural resources and pollute.

Again player will be playing the game for a long time and there can be continue development for the game. In the beginning there might not be so much materials and tools but over time it can grow and more can be added.If players are enjoying this type of game then making it more complex will be even better!

There is a story involved already but that does not mean engine and other things can't be improve in later editions! All I said could happen eventually cause as said it adds more depth to the game. It not just about adding content but if you have a game environment that support deeper play then you can add those content to it. I don't want this game to just end when the story is release ! And like to see it reach new heights in technology development.

Long Dark is hardcore so it gives it a green light that my idea could happen!

Love to survive in a real candadian landscape with deep complex environment with deep things you can find just like in real life! This might not come soon but if the developer have this long term vision for the game that would be delightful to know! Because no other game is doing it! They are doing survival but it just locate X and craft X and there is not much complexity or thinking at all.

Survival puzzle & Balance for enjoyability

Again like in real life you need to think and plan and in the game you can find the right balance. So it does not totally become a full puzzle game but close.

Like Myst? Currently the Witness? Deep thinking involved in solving puzzles. Now add that to survival in a game and it be super! They can be easy task like in real life and harder ones for the elites! But they all are logical like making an easy camp fire.

But realistic puzzles like making a campfire is just part of it.

Again players will want to play the same map again & again because they will be so much to do and different things each time! Even being on a last island will have this same impact and feel! Because there is so much things to make and find like in real life!

Perhaps if these ideas can happen that means a new engine too like using cryengine but that could be a possibility. Because most hardcore games uses high tech engines so the simulation is close to reality but again no one has manage to pull this off with a survival game like the Long Dark. It always needs zombies or some horror element to keep players interested.

Here is something for you to drop your jaws! I hope this shows you what can be done!

Rock Climb its so important in a survival game!

How about firewatch? There too much swearing but if cartoon like then its a match! The graphic could be like this but again it follows the same line with other game, simplistic in what you can do in the game. You cannot do much to environment its not as deep like in real life.

Here is screen shot in game of how realistic KD looks! Just looking at that image makes me think of the possibilities that can happen for a survival game! Lift up that log and I could find living crawling insects! KD is just a step further of what can be done to a story driven open world game!

So what I suggest is possible and can be very entertaining if the dev have this goal longterm but i hope it helps somehow!

[EternityTide]

The Long Dark is built on the Unity engine. Getting them to completely rebuild the game on a new graphics engine would be inordinately expensive and time consuming, plus I think they settled on this art style for a reason.

Whilst there are points where the game strives for realism, the Long Dark is not attempting to be a survival simulator.

Nice idea, but it doesn't fit with the game, and the effort involved is too expensive (financially and timewise as well).

All I can suggest is that the game includes HD textures at a later day.

[Ms Nutcracker]

Hi Eternal tide that is why i have suggested funding options so they can get the funds to do this but some developer do change engine if they see it will help.

Its almost about starting small and growing bigger and some successful indie developer manage to do this with their games! It just become so popular that they get the funds to expand! You don't need to stay small and build small games just because at the moment it looks small!

Hinterland has done a very good thing and enter kickstarter but it does not need to end there and they will grow and expand! And you and everyone else will really enjoy the ride and the expansion of the game to come in the future!

Here is something to think about:

Patrice Désilets: At Ubisoft, Désilets oversaw Assassin’s Creed and Assassin’s Creed II as creative director. He left the French publisher in 2010. In 2011, he helped THQ start its new Montreal studio, where he began work on a new triple-A action game called 1666. When THQ collapsed, Ubisoft — the publisher Désilets left in 2010 — purchased his studio and his new game. In May 2013, Ubisoft fired Désilets, according to the developer. He is now working on something secret at a new studio he recently started.

Jonathan Blow: This independent developer broke onto the scene in 2008 with the beloved time-bending platformer Braid. He is one of the best-known names in gaming. He is developing The Witness, which is an open-world puzzler with rich 3D visuals. (The Witness has finally been release)

This is from an independent developer:

Our two first games we started working on were bigger than we could afford. Yet we gave them a try. The first one we had to just abandon altogether, the second one we have put on ice while we try to come up with funds to finish it.

I don't see why these yearnings should be abandoned. We have several 'big game' ideas we'd like to work on. It's good to have those, otherwise we'd be repeating the fate of Rovio, you come out with a game and hey- what do you know, it's a massive success and money pours in from doors and windows. What to do then? Just keep selling IP for manufacturers to print your characters to their things :arrow: or how about go out and make one of those big games you always wanted to make?

In my opinion it is what a game studio should be doing, coming up with ideas for games and testing those ideas. Not every idea works in practice. When you're nearing completion with one game you should already have a next good idea lined up. You should have multiple good ideas of different costs ready so you can pick the best one you can afford to make.

In my opinion indies never should give up on those yearnings. If you don't sell your shares, you're still going to be independent company even if you are financially successful - it just means that you still make indie games, just the indie games you make could one day be AAA titles. Imagine that!

One man team made $2 Million on steam!

http://www.coldbeamgames.com/blog/november-26th-2012

Indie game making a lot of money!

“The indie game movement is the most important transition this industry has seen since the rise of the internet. Indie visionaries have single-handedly created the casual game genre, brought back long-dormant genres such as the strategy, adventure, and puzzle games, and have created entirely new concepts within gaming. Indie games have spurred the growth of technology that has allowed serious games and persuasive games to be created. Indie games are the ONLY games that simultaneously satisfy the gourmand, the casual gamer, and the revolutionary.” – Andy Schatz, Pocketwatch Games

[shadow=blue]Indie developer are changing the way AAA games are made! So don't assume that starting out small means that your going to stay small![/shadow]

[shadow=blue]I won't go into the details but Star Citizen can be seen as an indie game! Chris Robert is not selling off the company and will remain independent![/shadow]

Started out as individual with small teams and independent with out a publisher! And Look where they are now!

[shadow=blue]Hinterland studio will become like this one day because its no shame starting small![/shadow]

[EternityTide]

very impressive speech, but Hinterland have chosen this art style for a reason. The graphics is not necessarily a decider for the popularity and success of a game (for example Borderlands 2... for that matter, look at Minecraft).

There's little point to starting anew with a fresh game engine when the game is as far developed as it is, and to be totally honest, I'm quite happy with the graphics the way they are.